The present invention relates to a reinforcement assembly, and more particularly, to a reinforcement assembly for an overhead garage door with panels.
Overhead doors are widely employed as a means for minimizing the loss of available floor space in various structures and for facilitating movement of relatively heavy wooden doors through the use of springs and counterbalances. Such overhead doors have gained widespread acceptance in garage construction.
With the prevalent use of electrical door-opening devices, it is desired to employ relatively lightweight materials such as fiberglass and sheet metal panels to minimize the weight of the door in order to reduce the load being handled by the door-opening device. Thus, lighter weight door panels which are suitably reinforced are finding widespread use.
A particular problem with these lighter weight materials arises in geographic areas such as the so-called "hurricane belt" which are subjected to high wind velocities. Very heavy winds acting upon the exterior surface of the door tend to cause the door to buckle inwardly since the span of the door is effectively being held only by the rollers which ride in the vertical rails at the sides of the door opening.
Prior art reinforcement devices, such as that disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,443,625, granted May 13, 1969, provide effective reinforcement for a garage door to prevent the inward buckling due to positive forces exerted upon the exterior of the door.
However, hurricanes and tornados generate very low pressure conditions and this can result in a substantially lower pressure exterior to an overhead door than that which exists on the interior. This can lead to substantial outward buckling and potential damage to the door structure.
Some building codes, especially those in the "hurricane belt" areas, now require the door to resist buckling in the event of both positive and negative pressures. In addition, some codes now require resistance to greater forces than those which had been previously specified.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a novel reinforcement assembly for a multipaneled door of the overhead type to reinforce the door intermediate its width, and to allow it to resist both positive and negative pressures acting upon its exterior.
It is also an object to provide such a reinforcement assembly with locking means which may be readily engaged and disengaged to avoid interference with the opening and closing movement of the door during normal use.
Another object is to provide such a reinforcement assembly which may be easily installed after fabrication and installation of the door.
A further object is to provide such a reinforcement assembly which may be fabricated readily and relatively economically.